Keeping Her Promise
by Kalapini
Summary: Upon Aang's death Katara is thrown into keeping a promise to her friend, a promise which forces her to confront feeling and memories she would rather forget.


**Author's Notes:**

Pairings: Kataang, Zutara

This story was inspired by this picture: .com/art/Zutara-Week-2010-Change-172901531?q=boost%3Apopular+max_age%3A168h+zutara+week+change&qo=9 The section in bold is where around where the picture and story connect.

This was done as just a one shot to go with Darkbutterfly's but i probably won't be able to help myself so expect more :p**  
**

She knew Zuko was following her, she'd known from the start but it didn't stop her. Nothing would stop her from doing what her friend had asked, his dieing wish. Her feet travelled over the icy ground with their own mind, a habit she had developed during all their travels over the nations. A habit she now wished she had beaten because it left her mind free to travel back to the previous day.

_Aang's cold fingers gripped hers with a new life, she looked up from his wound. Believing for a moment that her healing was doing its job, that she was saving him. It wasn't the blood that was still flowing or the glaze in his eyes that told her any hope she held was groundless, it was the smile. The sad little smile that he had plastered on his face. _

_ "Katara, stop." He knew he wasn't going to heal, she could hear it in his voice but she refused to stop._

_ "I can't, your not healing!" She turned away from him. The pain in her chest surged and the glow of the water that was wrapped around her hands intensified with the emotional spurt. "I can fix this…I have to fix this the world needs the Avatar."_

_ "They will have another Avatar." He took her other hand in his and pulled it away from his chest._

_ The water dropped from her hands and without the glow the room around them returned to darkness. Her hands trembled in his and she still refused to look at him. Seeing that smile made it too real._

_ "We need you Aang."_

_ "You'll survive without me." He took one of his hands and turned her to face him, his blood stained her cheek "Will you do me one last thing?"_

_ "Anything." She bit her lip as the tears finally began to fall._

_ "Protect her."_

_ "Who?" Katara whispered, afraid if she spoke louder nothing would come out._

_ "The new Avatar, I can feel her already. The further away I slip the closer she comes to life." He smiled again, this time one of peace. He looked her in the eyes, the glaze disappearing for a moment. "She's a water bender Katara, like you…"_

_ His eyes slipped closed but the smile remained. Katara dropped his hands and took hold of his face instead. His cheeks were already growing cold. "Aang! Aang!" She leant down until her forehead touched his. "Please Aang…"_

Katara shook the memory from her head. Her hands tightened to fists at her sides, her emotions left tattered and high from reliving the death of her friend. Aang must have known he was going to die, he'd visited the spirit world not a moon ago and they had immediately set off to the Southern water tribe. He said that Sokka, Toph, Suki and Zuko were going to meet then there in another moon. They should be close then, except Zuko, he was early. She looked up to the full moon that illuminated the ice around her; even to her it felt eerie. But then tonight would be an eerie night.

"What do you expect to do accomplish Katara?" He was catching up to her, but she wasn't in a state of mind that he could reason with.

"Protect her from them." She kept walking; she must be close now the villagers had told her it was only an hour's walk.

"My father's followers?"

"Yes." She hissed. They had killed Aang; they wouldn't get the chance to kill the new Avatar.

"You killed them!" Zuko's hand gripped her arm, jerking her to a stop.

"I had to!" She pulled her arm away.

The wind stirred and she smelt smoke on the wind. She looked ahead; she could see the roof of a hut and a long line of smoke into the sky.

"I know you did but there's no more, she's not in danger." He was trying to calm her, keep her steady.

They reached the top of the ridge, below the hut was broken, the ice wall split and melted. Fire benders stood around it, four of them, all bearing the mark of the Ozai. "Yes she is."

She swang her hands down and bent the ice below her into a sled, she felt Zuko jump on behind her. "I'm coming with you Katara."

"You can't stop me." He didn't answer. She pushed them forward, bending a course into the snow in front of them; one that would lead them to the centre of the fray.

Two of the fire benders turned to meet them, moving into a stance and setting their hands at the ready. Katara finished the sleds course and took a deep breath, crouching on the sled. She breathed with the rhythm of the moon, the ebb and flow of its pulse in her power. The sled melted below their feet as it came to a stop. There was a cry and the air around her began to burn. She felt Zuko move in front of her and the heat dissipated.

"Move aside Zuko." She rose to her feet, the moons power crackling in her veins.

"You're not doing this on your own Katara."

She let out a long breathe. "Yes I am." She flexed her right hand, moving her fingers apart then together. With another breath she sliced her hand down through the air and Zuko knelt with the movement.

The fire benders in front of her hesitated, a bitter smile came over her face. She released Zuko and stepped towards them, repeating the movement with each hand. One soldier for each hand, she forced them to the ground. Surprise registered on their face, followed fast by disbelief then finally, the emotion that always came over people when they realised they weren't in control of their own bodies. Fear.

She stepped close to them. "You chose to follow the wrong Fire Lord."

She pinched her thumb to her first finger, knocking them unconscious. As much as she wanted to save the child and as much as she want to kill everyone responsible for Aang's death it wasn't in her to let them suffer. She squeezed her hands into fists, her nails cut through her skin. The blood dripped from her palms before they were dead, their hearts still in their chests.

"Please leave us alone!" Katara's head jerked up to look at the voice. A women, the mother, she was pushing one of the benders.

"No! Go back inside!" Katara ran to her, forgetting the moons power and the other bender. It was too familiar, a mother trying to protect her water bending child.

The mother turned to Katara, her eyes wide in shook. The bender noticed her distraction and took advantage of it. The knife was in her side before Katara could take hold of him. The mother slumped to the ground, her blood already staining the ground. Katara took hold of her with her free hand, searching for the wound.

"No!" A sob bit through her control, the bender had been trained too well. The knife had gone straight into the side of her heart, a wound that Katara couldn't heal, even with the moon to help her.

She released the mother but not before she had let her slip into sleep, where she was free from pain. The knife landed in her back without her truly feeling it, she knew it was somewhere near her hip but there was no pain.

"Katara! Fight back" Zuko's voice came closer as he called her and the knife was pulled from her hip. She didn't need to see that he had killed the bender; she knew he wouldn't let her be hurt. It didn't matter; her bending and the power of the moon had already healed the wound.

The bender under her control was fighting her, trying to break free from her hold. She flexed her fingers apart, pushing his veins close to the skin and lifting him into the air. His mouth opened in a silent scream. Her tears crystallised on her cheeks, he was a murder, just like the raiders who attacked her village when she was a child. All reason was gone, replaced by the same cold fury she used to hold for those raiders, you never forget even when you forgive. His veins pushed closer to his skin, she could see them against the olive skin of his face. They wanted to break through the skin, to obey her call.

"Stop it Katara!" Zuko grabbed her shoulders and swung her around. Her hands dropped to her side and the bender dropped to the ground. "What are you doing?"

"Stopping them." She shrugged away from him and ended the benders life, peacefully this time.

** "Katara...you've changed...but for the worse"  
"They took Aang away from me. All I can do now is protect the new Avatar in any way possible"  
"Including Bloodbending?"  
"It's a small price to pay"  
"No it's not, Katara! Look at yourself, you're not the same anymore...now...now you show nothing, but hatred in your eyes"**

She looked away from his face; she couldn't look at him and see disappointment. She had always been his guide when it came to controlling his anger, she was the one who had kept him in check and she was now the one who had lost it. She moved her hands in a sweeping motion, burying the fallen bodies in snow and ice. No animals would find them at the depth she let them sink to.

"I had to stop them." She let him pull her closed again.

"You did their not going to hurt her anymore." Zuko drew her into a tight hug; she tucked her face into his shoulder. "She needs a mother now."

Katara pulled away from him and shook her head. "I'm no mother."

Zuko walked away from her and into the remains of the hut, it took him less then a minute to emerge with a bundle of furs. She could see him bending the air around them to keep the baby warm. He looked up as he stopped in front of her and held out the child. She took the baby with shaking hands; big baby blue eyes stared up at her from amongst the fur.

Zuko placed his arm over her waist, keeping her warm with his warmth. "You are now."


End file.
